Okay. Hi. I have been so slacking lately and haven’t posted anything all summer, primarily because I was too busy watching Breaking Bad and Game of Thrones to even go near my keyboard. I’ve also been doing other stuff I guess. I saw a fantastic Bon Iver show in Raleigh, opened for Stepdad, and went up to Chicago for Lollapalooza. Which is what I’m going to write about.
Unfortunately, I have no insane stories like I did from Bonnaroo such as the naked man screaming to the heavens (you can read that story here). That was one of the problems I had with Lollapalooza. At Bonnaroo there were crazy people left and right. People so strung out on drugs that they thought their feet were pieces of the state of Georgia. But at Lollapalooza, people were just not as wild. 
They also did not seem as excited to be there at Bonnarooligans did. When people started coming in the gates at Bonnaroo there were people screaming, holding up signs, more excited than anything. But at Lollapalooza, people were just staying to themselves, going to see the bands they wanted to see, and that’s it. I think the main reason behind this is the fact that there was no camping. Even though camping at a festival is dirty, hot, and gross, it still brings people together and creates a community. There was no big sense of community at Lollapalooza. And I’m not gonna super complain because it was such a fun festival, I just missed the whole togetherness I experienced at Bonnaroo and Glastonbury.
Other than that, the bands and the city of Chicago were absolutely fantastic. The first day I got there I saw an in-store acoustic Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. performance which was very cool, except they are absolutely made to be a energetic full band. That night I went to see Death From Above 1979 at Metro, which is an absolutely fantastic venue. The show was great, as I have always wanted to see DFA but I only really started listening to 
them after they broke up. I saw Sebastien Grainger, the singer and drummer, a while ago as he opened for a band I went to see, but I didn’t realize that he played drums and sang at the same time in DFA. That was extremely impressive. He came out on stage in all white and the other half of the band Jesse F. Keeler was in all black. They completely blew away the sold-out crowd and the whole place became an insane, sweaty mess. It was a great way to kick off the weekend but I think next time I see a DFA show, I will stay out of the middle of the crowd.
Friday.
Was an extremely hot day but the bands were phenomenal. In the morning I saw The Vaccines, The Naked and Famous, and then Reptar. The first two were great but Reptar were just ridiculously awesome. Since they’re from Athens, I always hear a bunch about them, and now I understand. All the members looked like they were just having the time of their lives, especially the keyboardist who was wearing a blue spandex suit and just
dancing all over the stage. I then headed to one of the main stages to stake out a good spot for Coldplay. I saw The Kills, who I had never listened to before, and they put on an incredibly high-energy show, with Jamie Hince killing it on guitar. Bright Eyes were up next and before the show there was a girl in the crowd who was screaming “OH MY GOD” and “CONOR OBERST” even when he wasn’t on stage. She was telling us how she’s a die-hard fan and how he’s the best thing ever, etc. etc. AND THEN, this other girl popped up right next to her and was going even crazier. They didn’t know each other at all, but the one who popped up started like one-upping everything the other girl was saying. The first girl was like “yeah, I’ve seen Bright Eyes before” and the other girl was like “YEAH I HAVE SEEN BRIGHT EYES 8 TIMES”. It was the best thing I have seen. 
Then, during the set, the second girl kept singing lyrics into the first girl’s face and the first girl didn’t know any of the lyrics and it was just too much. Bright Eyes put on an amazing show, Conor Oberst is the most brilliant showman, especially with the fact that he sings from his heart every single time. He pays attention to his lyrics, and it’s as if he is singing them for the first time. Amazing. Then Coldplay finally came on stage and it was too 
fantastic, as always. They pulled off a completely solid 90-minute set, looking like they were having the time of their lives. One thing that amazes me about them is that they have had the same members since they have started and they’re still all best friends. They joked around and smiled at each other throughout the whole set. They played A BUNCH of new songs with lasers and an amazing light show that supposedly was better than Deadmau5’s. The new songs sounded awesome, and definitely the type of catchy, pop song that Coldplay knows how to write oh so well. One highlight was an homage to Amy Winehouse where Chris Martin sang the chorus to Rehab before heading straight into Fix You. It was very cute.
Saturday.
This was my favorite day. In the morning I saw Grouplove and Walk The Moon who were both very high energy and fun. I then headed to the smallest stage, the BMI stage to see Portland band Typhoon. This was without a doubt the best performance of the weekend. As the band came on the stage to set up their instruments they kept having more and more people on stage until there were 13 members. They have trumpets, and guitars, and 
two drummers, and violas, and cello, and keyboards, and it was the best thing I have ever seen. It started raining during their set, and the stage was right near the lake and it was magical and beautiful. Especially during The Honest Truth were every member sings “Hallelujah, it’ll be gone soon” and it sounded amazing. Their whole set was inspiring and the best. I saw Super Mash Bros next and they debuted a bunch of new songs which sounded 
amazing, mashing up Ke$ha, Lady Gaga, and Justin Bieber and surprisingly making them sound good. I went to the Google+ stage after this to see The Drums, Ellie Goulding, and Lykke Li. The Drums were pretty good, they cut their set 5 minutes short and didn’t play their single Let’s Go Surfing which I thought was dumb because a lot of people wanted to hear that song. Okay, now Ellie Goulding and Lykke Li were like eerily similar. They have 
fairly different music, but too many things were the same. They’re both tiny blonde girls with a well-groomed backing band, they both sing and play a drum, AND THEY BOTH SAMPLED POWER BY KANYE WEST DURING THEIR SETS. Like, how does that happen? Two sets, right after one another, sampling the same song. So weird. During Ellie Goulding’s set a girl ran on stage and grabbed her boob…so that was fairly strange. After this, I went to see a Two Door Cinema Club and Grouplove after show and that was wonderful. Grouplove’s new album is coming out fairly soon and I think it’s going to make an impact in the music scene. So much fun.
Sunday.
Sunday was super chill, I was extremely tired so I didn’t really go see too many bands BUT, in the morning I went to see this movie Another Earth. I saw it on my own and it was amazing. I don’t usually go to movies on my own but this movie is only playing in cities like Chicago and Boston and it was aaaaamaazzzing. It has Ethan from Lost (William Mapother) in it and he’s great and everything about it is great. It was super sad though. Then
I got lost (ha) on the way back to Lolla but made it in time to see Noah & The Whale who were pretty good but the frontman was a bit stoic and didn’t do too much. All the other members were all over the place, playing different instruments and having fun, but the singer was just kinda boring. Still good though. Then, City & Colour were playing but I purposefully did not go see them. The day before I had found out that Alexisonfire had broken up because of him because he wants to be in City & Colour full time. It wasn’t unexpected but I was really upset because I’ve seen Alexisonfire a bunch of times and they are so amazing. So I didn’t wanna see Dallas Green because he’s dumb. I went to see Chicago band Young Man who were decent, nothing special, but it was nice to just sit down and not really have to pay attention to the band. I had a hot dog called a Brunch Dog that was a sausage in toast with scrambled egg, bacon, and maple mayo on it and it was probably the most delicious thing in the entire world ever. 
After this I saw Lissie who was amazing and has such an amazing voice. Her drummer played bass and drums and sang at the same time which was extremely incredible. And her guitarist was unbelievable as well. I would say she was the second best of the weekend after Typhoon. OH ALSO, I saw a guy with a Nickelback Dark Horse Tour 2009 shirt on at Lollapalooza. WHAT. WHY WOULD YOU WEAR THAT EVER?!?! I was so upset. After Lissie, my friend Sarah and I decided to leave as there were gigantic storm clouds piling up around the city. We missed out on seeing Deadmau5, Foo Fighters, and Kid Cudi but I didn’t really mind because the storm was literally insane. Supposedly there were people all over the place sliding on the mud getting as dirty as possible. As fun as that sounds…it doesn’t sound very fun.
At the airport the next day, City & Colour were standing right near me in the lineup, but I didn’t talk to Dallas Green to find out his spirit animal because I was mad at him for breaking up Alexisonfire.
Okay, so that was pretty much my Lollapalooza experience. As I said, there was amazing music, but not too many hilarious people or stories unfortunately. I’m very glad I went, as I hope to hit every major festival in the world at some point in my life, but I was just a bit perturbed by the lack of community and excitement. Obviously people were excited to see bands, but I just felt like a lot of people were there to just keep to themselves/group of friends and just not do anything ridiculous. Lollapalooza was more about the music while Bonnaroo was more about the experience. I feel that if there was camping at Lollapalooza it would probably be the most amazing experience as it was not as hot and dusty as Bonnaroo was. But it was still awesome. Typhoon are the most amazing band ever. Please check them out, just watch this video.
I promise I’ll be posting more soon. I’m gonna post some stuff about cool music, maybe a review of Watch The Throne, etc. etc.
